Daffy Duck & Egghead is a 1937-produced, 1938-released Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It features the early, zany version of Daffy Duck, who spends the film harassing Egghead (later becoming Elmer Fudd), marking the second appearance of Daffy Duck (after Porky's Duck Hunt, which this cartoon is basically a reworking of), his first in color, and first where he is given his current name. It includes a set-piece song-and-dance number by Daffy, doing his own variation of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down (the theme for Looney Tunes).

Contents

Plot

The story begins with Egghead (in a voice imitating radio comic Joe Penner) who is annoyed by a rotoscoped shadowman in the audience who doesn't sit down. Egghead shoots the audience member and the member falls after going through extended "death throes". Egghead hears a call from the grass, and out comes Daffy Duck biting his nose (just like he did to Porky Pig in Porky's Duck Hunt.) While fighting, a tortoise (with a voice imitating radio comic Parkyakarkus) comes and tries to give Daffy and Egghead new weapons. When the tortoise goes away, Egghead uses his real gun and Daffy tries to make him shoot the apple on his head. Egghead misses all the times, so Daffy puts a blind sign and a cup of pencils and the disguise glasses on Egghead, with Daffy saying: "Too bad." Daffy then walks away and sings a song by himself, in a set-piece drawn in a different style from the rest of the cartoon, and also containing the subdued, early form of Daffy's lisp, which is absent in the rest of the film:

My name is Daffy Duck,
I worked on a Merry-Go-Round,
the job was swell, I did quite well
till the Merry-go-round broke down.
(Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo-hoo!)
The guy that worked with me,
Was a horse with a lavender eye,
Around in whirls, we winked at girls
till the Merry-go-round broke down.
(plays flute)
Up and down and round we sped,
That dizzy pace soon went to my head,
Now you know why I'm dizzy,
and do the things I do,
I am askew [or "a screw"] and you'd be too
if the Merry-go-round broke down.
(Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo-Hoo-hoo!)
If the Merry-go-round broooooooookkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeee (while stretching his neck, so far that he got multiple blue lines around his neck instead of just one) down (calmly; not singing)

Daffy then shakes hands with his reflection from the lake and they both dive back into the water.

Later, Egghead finally catches Daffy, using a glove which knocks Daffy on the head. Egghead jumps for joy, until an ambulance comes. A duck comes out and thanks Egghead for catching Daffy. The duck describes Daffy as "Crazy! Looney-tuney! and more importantly 100% nuts!!" However, the two ducks start acting crazy again, and the film ends with Egghead acting crazy himself.

Censorship

On Cartoon Network (American feed only; overseas Cartoon Network channels have this uncut, though Cartoon Network America has aired this uncut once), Boomerang (American feed only; overseas Boomerang channels have aired this uncut), and The WB, the scene where Egghead shoots an audience member after telling him to sit down was cut.[1][2]

Trivia

The cartoon's ending is later reused in the ending of Walter Lantz's Andy Panda cartoon Knock Knock (1940) which marked the debut of Woody Woodpecker (co-incidentally both cartoons from different studios were written by Ben Hardaway).

Only cartoon where Daffy's collar is blue instead of white.

Daffy would sing is own variation of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down (Looney Tunes theme song) again, albeit with different lyrics, in Boobs in the Woods (1950).

Availability

Daffy Duck & Egghead is available, uncensored and uncut and restored with the original opening and ending titles (but with the "dubbed" ending cue instead of the original ending cue), on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 because the restored DVD version uses the 2nd "dubbed" soundtrack.

Notes/Goofs

In 1995, Turner made recreated opening titles for this cartoon. The opening was the opening from Wacky Wildlife, followed by a recreated BR Merrie Melodies card, then the original title card fades in. The other cartoon to have recreated Blue Ribbon titles in the Turner "dubbed version" is The Night Watchman.[3]

The second USA and EU dubbed versions use the 1941-55 MM end cue.[4][5]

The 1941-55 rendition replaces the 1937-38 rendition on the DVD release, the second USA dubbed print, and the EU dubbed print for reasons unknown. Dubbed Version 1[6] keeps the end cue while dubbed version 2 does not, meaning that the DVD used dubbed version 2 as their soundtrack source.